trinity forest

This is for the out-of-doors types/naturalists on this site. I guess the Trinity Forest can be accessed via Simpson Stuart Rd. or Dowdy Ferry Rd.? Is hiking or exploring safe in that area? The reason I ask is bodies get dumped there and it is in an unsavory part of Dallas Co. Is it reasonable, therefore, to "pack some heat" (carry a firearm)if in that area? Can anyone post me a current map of the extant Trinity Forest since most of it seems to have been industrialized? Jim

Jim, you got me. It looks like it's generally around what used to called Rylie. The McCommas Bluff Landfill is due south of the new Trinity Forest Golf Club - hopefully that doesn't cause any issues for golfers when the wind is blowing out of the south. There are several recently added amenities in the area, like the Trinity Forest Adventure Park (obstacle courses, zip lines, etc.), which is only open on weekends right now.

Best access is at the dead end of River Oaks road at Joppa Preserve, formerly the Trinity Rod and Gun Club. This location is largely safe there during daylight hours and has a concrete bike path that runs up to Loop 12 and down around the river to the Trinity River Audubon Center.

Dead end on Fellows Lane has a small park there with a parking lot. The dead end affords a view of the Lower Chain of Wetlands.

There is no real recreational map of the area. Find a pig trail and follow it into the woods.

If you are comfortable with your own safety then there is nothing to worry about in regards to cretins and crooks. You just have to be meaner than them when it counts. I am comfortable hiking anywhere down there alone. Usually on Saturday mornings there is a stronger police presence down there with bike patrols and a helicopter sweep. If you hike then and encounter something bad, the helicopter is 3 minutes away.

jgoodman Wrote:
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> This is for the out-of-doors types/naturalists on
> this site. I guess the Trinity Forest can be
> accessed via Simpson Stuart Rd. or Dowdy Ferry
> Rd.? Is hiking or exploring safe in that area? The
> reason I ask is bodies get dumped there and it is
> in an unsavory part of Dallas Co. Is it
> reasonable, therefore, to "pack some heat" (carry
> a firearm)if in that area? Can anyone post me a
> current map of the extant Trinity Forest since
> most of ti seems to have been industrialized?
> Jim

I can't vouch for any of this information, but it is "official." City of Dallas has been known to over sell its amenities or to make claims about the quality of its natural resource management and protection that are not quite up to snuff.

I think we will all have a better understanding of the area after the upcoming PGA tournament at the Trinity Forest Golf Course, which is the new home to the Byron Nelson, held at Las Colinas for so many years.

Will be interesting to see how the "denizens" of the nearby areas deal with so many people and their cars. I'm guessing there will be a large LEO presence and lots of surveillance cameras.

Locals should realize that this might usher in more businesses and help to build the area. ........Fred Ragsdale

Fred Ragsdale Wrote:
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> I think we will all have a better understanding of
> the area after the upcoming PGA tournament at the
> Trinity Forest Golf Course, which is the new home
> to the Byron Nelson, held at Las Colinas for so
> many years.
>
> Will be interesting to see how the "denizens" of
> the nearby areas deal with so many people and
> their cars. I'm guessing there will be a large
> LEO presence and lots of surveillance cameras.
>
> Locals should realize that this might usher in
> more businesses and help to build the area.
> ........Fred Ragsdale

I have wondered what businesses will be attracted to serving a very small private clientele of golfers. Since the course has been open over a year now, I have yet to see anything new along Loop 12. Since HUD money was used to build a lot of it one must wonder how millions of dollars in federal funding could have directly benefited the residents with a new recreation center, better housing or infrastructure. Instead, this will need to be a fundamental case of success with trickle down economics.

The neighborhood feels that the golf course and events there are for other people, not the people of the community.

I have no idea what the law enforcement presence will look like. It does not need to be large since the golf course is surrounded by high fences. People will be bused in from far away Fair Park and dropped off at Pemberton Hill and Loop 12. They claim a 10 minute bus ride but I don't think that is realistic. Not even at 5am on a Sunday can I drive that distance in that time.

Life goes on for everyone else. The residents of Joppa are angry about a concrete trail being built over unmarked graves. They are worried about air quality and pollution as well. A real fine mess to sift out.

I was at an SMU talk yesterday regarding the Upper Trinity three forks region and the role it played in the peopling of the Americas during Clovis times. Fascinating talk by Dub Crook. Of interest to me was the 30,000-40,000 year old site on Pemberton Hill, the Elam Focus and other areas down near McCommas Bluff that date back tens of thousands of years.

I asked Mr Crook about the Conquistador helmet, tabor and equipment found in the vicinity of Joppa(Honey Springs) many years ago. He said the Smithsonian has it and could have been from the Moscoso Expedition.

I personally don't look for the Trinity Forest Golf Course/Club to rise to the level of Los Colinas. It is rather remote and in a poorly developed part of the Co. As I see it. the well-heeled middle and upper middle class patrons are easy targets for being mugged or even murdered. During this last weekend, over-fly pictures from the helicopter revealed a rather seedy landscape with few amenities. Perhaps the course has not yet been developed to it's fullest. I doubt that any housing beyond Title 8 will come to pass in that area. Jim

Butt-ugly course. It looks like it was built on a land-fill, which is exactly correct. I was only an occasional golfer but I would never have played this course even for free. Never an avid golfer as I said, to me it was a chance to take a leisurely fresh air stroll in a beautifully landscaped setting, not a trudge across a wasteland. My layman's opinion is that this will be a total fail as a golf course. Possibly a mini-baja race course.

bug Wrote:
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> Any pre-golf course aerials out there?
> I would love to see what it looked like before...

I don't think the entire course is on a former landfill. There was some industrial activity, though. But a good portion of the area was wooded, some prairie, grading to a nice swampy area I think. There were oodles of wildlife. Ben S. knows a loot more about it than I do, but I did visit the area on more than one occasion. Basically, it is a portion of a location that could have been a nice part of the nature preserve that abuts it. Some nice streams and ponds were formerly there, but the city, in its wisdom, preferred a golf course.

So far as typical golf course conditions, I imagine they will come with time. There will be lots on non-native and in some cases invasive trees, shrubs, and forbes planted. Though I haven't seen the course, I am sure it is planted with Bermuda grass and such like. And so, we lose additional wildlife habitat and open natural areas.

Thanks for the link Frank. I do see some water in the photos, but not being a golfer, I don't know whether that constitutes "water hazards" or not.

I also see some native vegetation, far more than is typical of golf courses, so at least that much is good. So far as I am concerned, golf courses are just destruction of what should be good open space with native vegetation and wildlife habitat.

I probably should have been more precise and said "Zero (on course) water hazards. The only water I see is way way out of bounds and might not even be on the property. I am strictly a "duffer" and well known for never seeing a water hazard I didn't hit, and even I would probably not be able to land a shot that far out of bounds.

I agree with you about natural open space, but the landfills I've seen were very ugly. So I expect this a step to at least partly reclaim this area.

No water hazards on course. It is links style built on the old South Loop Landfill. I visited on Sunday during the Byron Nelson. Rather unimpressive for a golf course that was built to be "world class". I have been out on the landfill prior to the golf construction. Much of the topography is the same.

The installation of prairie plants out there is largely a failure. Quite a few invasive species like Johnson grass and hedge parsley now dominate the slopes.

City of Dallas still owns the land. The golf club has a sweetheart contract to manage it. Money pit for Dallas taxpayers. This project is not inclusive of the neighborhood around there. Pretty sad how that was not a part of the plan.

old man from dallas Wrote:
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> So, this city owned property is not a part of the
> parks system like the Stephens Park Golf Course?
> It is privately operated by a contractor for
> profit? Boo!

Yes, the city owns the property. A private corporation, the Company of Trinity Forest Golfers is the contractor.